Ace Attorney: Web of Mistrust

The Misled Turnabout, Part 4 (Shayla)

CROSS-EXAMINATION- POLLY BLOOM: DAY OF THE CRIME

-I was asked to come to the mansion by a letter.

-The letter said that I would come to Umber Mansion if I wanted... Erm... A trio of people to live.

-I did as told but brought a few people along for backup.

-After a brief chat over RB-7, I was attacked.

"HOLD IT!"

Niamh slammed her hands on the desk. I gulped. Man, the deja vu I was already getting was so strong! Please don't give me a terrifying flashback! I held my Magatama nervously. Please don't... Don't even dare...

Luckily, the universe was going to be nice to me today.

"Can you remember anything about your assailant?" Niamh asked.

"Not really... They wore a hood over their head and had all black on. I feel like I remember something red, though. Maybe I lasted a few seconds after being attacked..." Polly replied. She looked deep in thought. I felt bad for her. Recalling that stuff isn't all that fun. Thinking about my scar always gave me nightmares.

Push it away, Starr!

"But I think that they had black hair..." Polly continued. Niamh gasped and slammed her hands on the defense bench once again. I suppose that she had caught on.

"Witness! Please add that to your testimony!" she exclaimed rather forcefully.

Polly nodded. I guess that she hadn't realized what her testimony was doing. It was freeing all suspicion from the client.

-I think my attacker had black hair...

"OBJECTION!"

Niamh smirked and crossed her arms. "You may deliver a not guilty verdict now, Your Honor," she announced.

"W-what are you saying?!" Hana roared in pure anger. "The defendant is guilty!"

Niamh shook her head. "The witness, the victim herself, just stated that her attacker had black hair. However, this isn't possible! The defendant has white hair!"

And this time the mistake wasn't through color blindness or the victim being channeled by a Fey clan medium. At the agency, we've seen it all.

In color and in black and white, if you get what I'm saying.

Because Clarith Blake from my trial a year ago was color blind? Yes? No? Alright.

My fellow gallery fellows began chattering. I groaned. Trials would be over in at least half the time if people just shut up. And if the suspense was really killing them, why did they talk when they could be quiet and hear the end of an argument faster? Geez!

The judge brought his gavel down three times. "Order in the court!" he demanded. Within a few moments, the talkers had finally shut their traps. It's about time.

Prosecutor Bullgard looked ready to shred her red fabric with her teeth. I guess that she thought today's trial was in the bag.

Well, she thought wrong.

I smirked. We always got the right verdict! For the truth!

"I guess that you're right..." Polly muttered from the witness stand. "Maybe my attacker wasn't the defendant..."

Knew it!

I turned to Cotoli and Anton and smiled. "This whole nightmare will be over soon! Promise!"

Anton leaned on me nervously, his head resting on my shoulder. "D-do you realize w-what just h-happened?"

"No," I said, for once lost as heck. I was used to be the one leaving everybody else in the dust, so this was definitely a new thing for me. "What just happened?"

"Our fates are in Niamh's hands now," Cotoli whispered. "Polly said her attacker had black hair. Niamh could twists this around and indict one of us for this."

I resisted the urge to curse under my breath. I was about to retort that I didn't have black hair, but then my hands went to my wig.

Black as night.

I gasped and clenched my teeth. "Y-you're right-!" I muttered.

Niamh seemed to have noticed this and glanced up at Cotoli, Anton, and myself. Her eyes were questioning. I shook my head and held up my hands defensively. No, I mouthed.

Hana also observed my mini conversation with Niamh. Averl was completely oblivious to it, however. She was focused on the defense bench, staring down every little atom of the wood in blind hope that it would give her an answer.

"The prosecution has a few other ideas on the assailant," Hana announced.

I found myself hugging Anton in an attempt to calm myself down. My eyes were so wide I swore that they would turn into UFOs. I stroked the blonde gently. The calming effect didn't work on me, but it seemed to work on Anton. "Polly w-won't let the i-indictment get that far," he told me. "If o-one of us i-is the s-so called culprit."

I nodded, letting his words sink in under my skin. See, Starr? No reason to worry yourself. Polly wouldn't let that happen...

Right?

"The backup team of the victim," Prosecutor Bullgard began. "One of them could easily be the culprit. After all, two have black hair."

cAN I STRANGLE SOMETHING-

"OBJECTION!"

Polly shook her head from the witness stand. "I know it wasn't one of them! I would have recognized their faces!"

"S-see?" Anton told me.

I nodded with a relieved sigh. "You were right. Polly won't let us get on the wrong end of that gavel if we don't deserve it," I said, a small smile gracing my lips.

"The witness says that the culprit wasn't one of those three. We must take her word to be true," Niamh agreed. She looked up at Anton, big bro and I for a few seconds. She winked at us before returning to the trial at hand.

The judge nodded. "We will have to trust the witness on her testimony. She would recognize the culprit of all people. If she says the culprit isn't one of those three, it must be true."

Prosecutor Bullgard looked pretty unhappy at this development. She snarled in anger. Her case was spiraling down the drain faster by the minute.

"Do you have any other ideas on the culprit's identity?" Niamh asked, ignoring Hana's unease.

Polly hesitated and shook her head. "I'm sad to say that I have no other ideas."

The words nagged at me deep down.

If even Polly didn't know who the culprit was, who did?

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I am going crazy with typing today gosh.

I typed a chapter of my TT fic, two chapters on my group acc. and then one of these.

My gosh.

And yeah, Shayla Willows from QATH case 1 is making a brief appearance. Go aliases.

-Digital